Point Park claims 2018 RSC Baseball Tournament championship over IU Southeast
Point Park claims 2018 RSC Baseball Tournament championship over IU Southeast
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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- Point Park University claimed the 2018 River States Conference Baseball Tournament championship with a 10-5 victory over IU Southeast in the finals on Sunday, May 6. The Pioneers completed a 4-0 week with the win.
Point Park (45-7) and IU Southeast (40-12) both advance to the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round beginning May 14 at campus sites around the country. Point Park earned the RSC's automatic bid as the conference tournament champion, and IU Southeast earned the RSC's other automatic qualification as regular-season champion.
Point Park built early leads of 4-0 and 8-3 and held on for the win. The Pioneers scored in each of the first five innings, which included four runs in the bottom of the first. Point Park totaled 14 hits and two homers versus six IU Southeast pitchers.
IU Southeast got the tying run to the on-deck circle trailing 10-5 with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the eighth. But Point Park's Addison Domingo came in to finish off the game. He allowed an initital walk to force in the Grenadiers' fifth run, but then he retired the next five batters in a row to close it out.
Jake Horew smashed a two-run homer in the Point Park first to highlight that inning. Stefan Mrkonja and Chris Hernandez both delivered RBI hits in the second to increase the lead to 6-2 after two innings. Hernandez later homered in the fourth to push the lead to 8-3.
The Pioneers tacked on a couple of later runs to add more breathing room. The first one of those was on Edberg Dominguez's sacrifice fly in the fifth, and the second was Mrkonja's sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Hernandez finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs and his solo homer. Mrkonja ended 2 for 4 with three RBIs. Ben Herstine had a big game of 3 for 3 with two runs and an RBI. Dominguez and Cole Horew each had two hits.
Christian Negron (6-0) pitched 5.2 innings of middle relief to get the victory. He bridged the gap from the second inning to the eighth inning. Negron struck out seven, worked around three walks and gave up four hits during his outing. Only two runs were charged to Negron, who took over for starter Nick Bucci an inherited a 4-2 lead in the second.
Tanner Leenknecht was 3 for 5 with two doubles to lead IU Southeast. Nolan Rogers had two hits and walked once. The Grenadiers drew five walks and two hit batters. They totaled eight hits and left 12 men on base throughout the game. Richard Rodriguez had two RBIs with a sacrifice fly to cut the score to 4-2 in the second and a base hit to make the score 7-3 in the fourth.
Point Park and IU Southeast will learn their NAIA National Championship Opening Round brackets on Thursday, May 10 at 4 p.m. ET. The brackets and pairings will be announced then on the NAIA Facebook page.